@lain @grillchen @eal i think the point is not that advertising can't contain useful information, but that its main purpose isn't to make you well-informed.
just as ads _can_ be entertaining or aesthetically pleasing, they can also succeed without doing any of these things.
just compare it so something you would deliberately seek out for these purposes, perhaps something you yourself would pay for. i suspect you you would expect something much better than the average ad.